Tuesday, 19 March 2013

HE Angels

I have written before about the way that some home educators are convinced that there must be money to be made from their expertise in this subject and their attempts to cash in on the market. Sadly, nearly all fail. Most home educating parents are too hard-up and suspicious to pay somebody to tell them how to go about educating their own child or dealing with their local authority. A few enterprising souls try to get money from local authorities by training them about home education. Both Mike Fortune-Wood and Alison Sauer do this of course. I want to write today about a scheme which is running in the midlands and north of England and which is supposed to be a cross between a support group and, it is hoped, a source of employment for one or two lucky souls. I am referring of course to the HE Angels. Some years ago, Alison Sauer was briefly a director of a company with the strange name of the Little Angels Support and Wellbeing Community Interest Company. She filed away the word ‘angels’ in her memory and decided to use it for a new project of hers, which was to be called ‘HE Angels’. This has not been set up as a company, although the idea has been mooted, nor is it a registered charity. Essentially, it consists of Alison Sauer, Cheryl Moy, the Hafod Witch and one or two other like-minded souls. Cheryl Moy, AKA ‘Pink’, is of course Alison Sauer’s current best friend. The idea is that Cheryl will raise her profile as a home education activist by making a nuisance of herself with various local authorities many miles from her home in Doncaster. She also lets people know on a one-to-one basis about HE Angels and explains how this group can help them. The impression given is that this is a thing of the future. One optimistic person even claimed that it could one day rival Education Otherwise! The association with Alison Sauer is enough to put many people off and for this reason, Cheryl plays that aspect down a little. A few months ago, it cost her the friendship of Maire Stafford, who was one of her chums, but hates Alison Sauer like the plague. When she realised that Cheryl was working hand in glove with Alison, it led to a falling out. Although accounts are not published for this group, sporadic attempts are made at fundraising; for example to pay for Cheryl Moy’s car to be repaired and that sort of thing. A Facebook group was set up for HE Angels, claiming that it was a company, but nothing yet seems to have come of this. I would be interested to hear of anybody’s experiences with HE Angels, either good or bad.

38 comments:

So many many errors here. Simon you have outdone yourself, you really are so out of touch with reality. You will do anything to bring other people down, why don't you do something constructive with your time?

I have known Cheryl online for nearly 18 months and not once been worried about her motives for what she does, not Alison's or the other Angels, the loss of 'friendship' with Maire is not a big one, it certainly didn't bother Cheryl.There is no prospect of employment for any of the Angels, they know that! They do it because they are good people. There are no accounts for the Angels, the car repair was done through a paypal account set up originally to raise money for a family with a child with cancer, so more than one person had access to it (unlike Cheryl's personal Paypal, it was clear that people were asked if they'd like to help her out, she's helped loads of people in the past and lots of people were more than happy to help. This was nothing to do with the HE Angels. Many Facebook groups are set up as a 'business' it's just a setting on there, nothing more. Cheryl does not make a nuisance of herself with anyone, she has helped me extensively, taking time out of her life to help me deal with a malicious allegation to social services who, because I Home Educate, decided the social aspect was now a concern, which of course the 4 social meets a week we go to was not taken into consideration, Cheryl sorted this with some time and effort, explaining the law to them they have closed the case and asked to keep her details for any further cases. Cheryl made it clear that some basic details of the case would be shared with fellow angels as she would rather have some other input into the case to confirm which approach to take. I was happy for her to do this.Education Otherwise did nothing to help me, my local contact wouldn't help, Cheryl would! I have never seen Cheryl play down her friendship with Alison, the opposite actually, they are clearly friends, well they are to anyone that knows them. I know Cheryl and the other Angels will support anyone that asks, they are willing to go the extra mile that so many people that claim they offer support wouldn't do.

Have you read it? Because I have and I also know only 5 other people have, so I can now guess quite accurately who you are! I know that there is nothing in her writings to be considered a concern for social services. Also why would she need help? She's more than capable of dealing with social services, after all she is the person many people go to for help. I think some people really need to get over this fixation with cheryl, yes she's amazing, yes she's committed, yes she's honest, yes she's hard working, but why the fascination! Oh yes that's it, JEALOUSY!

Alison Sauer has claimed that Wendy Charles-Warner is on the verge of legal action on more than one occasion. It never comes to anything and I think that it is used as a threat to stop people expressing certain views. I have seen this tactic used during discussions on facebook between Alison, Cheryl and others. Combined with the claim that the Hafod Witch is really a lawyer, the purpose is to put the frighteners on people. Alison Sauer will say vaguely menacing things, such as 'Wendy will be serving papers on such and such individual'.

You will note that she has been displeased at what Kent County Councillors have been saying to each other. One might reasonably ask why this is any business of a woman living in Doncaster! Note too that this was edited by Maire Stafford, in the days when she and Cheryl were good friends. All this is part of a general plan by Cheryl Moy to make herself a person to be taken notice of. She has declared it her mission to 'straighten out' local authorities across the country!

'Don't forget your own modest attempt at making money by writing a book aimed at education professionals such as local authority employees and teachers.'

Except of course, I did not expect to make any money from that enterprise! Academic books seldom net their authors much. I do not think that £100 in royalties over the course of three years can really be considered 'making money'. The purpose of the book was to explain home education to those who might not know much about it.

'You seem to be wasting an awful amount of your time writing books that you don't expect to make money from then.'

Well, not really. I like to keep a balance between academic stuff, popular history and fiction. Generally speaking, the academic books do not sell too well, but get one's name known. This means that a book on the subject aimed at general readers will be more likely to find a publisher. The books for the general readers make money, but might not have been possible without a one or two academic ones first.

'Generally speaking, the academic books do not sell too well, but get one's name known. This means that a book on the subject aimed at general readers will be more likely to find a publisher.'

Surely you didn't use home education to try to make money, Simon? Gasp! How disgusting!

Actually, I am all for free enterprise and if there are people who can provide a product or service which home educators are happy to pay for, well done them. I've never uderstood your disdain for such small businesses.

Simon said,"Except of course, I did not expect to make any money from that enterprise!"and Simon said,"The books for the general readers make money, but might not have been possible without a one or two academic ones first."

So ultimately your book on HE was intended to make you money, if only by allowing you to publish more profitable books. And of course, you did make some money directly from the HE book too. Like the other person commenting above, I have no problem with people attempting to make money from their knowledge about HE as you and others have done. But really, can you not see how hypocritical you are being when you critise others for doing the same?

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